


The Diner

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [272]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Diner Owner Benny, Getting Together, M/M, Professor Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-27 01:13:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8382172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: Benny owns a diner right by campus and mother hens Sam, an overworked professor, into eating whenever he gets half a chance.





	1. Chapter 1

Sam hasn’t slept in two days, between making finals and giving finals and grading finals and making sure all his students get their final papers back in time and holding extra office hours and helping his TAs out. He hasn’t really gotten more than a couple hours all week, really.

He can’t remember the last time he ate, either, he realizes as he stumbles into Benny’s. He seats himself at the booth in the corner by the kitchen, and it only takes a minute for Benny to come out.

“What can I get ya today, Professor?” Benny asks.

Sam smiles tiredly. “What’s good?”

Benny snorts. “Like I’m gonna tell you anything I cook isn’t good.”

“Fair enough. Surprise me, then.”

Benny nods. “You want a coffee, or you actually gonna get some sleep soon?”

Sam flushes. He didn’t realize it was that obvious. “No, I—uh, I’m headed home after this, actually. Gave my last final today. So, skip the coffee. A water?”

“Comin’ right up, Professor,” Benny says.

Benny doesn’t disappoint, coming back quickly with a chicken salad sandwich with homemade fries, a side salad, and some carrots. “Anything else?” Benny asks. 

Sam shakes his head and digs in. It’s good.

He’s just finishing when Benny drops another plate in front of him, a slice of homemade pie with a scoop if ice cream. “On the house,” he says. “To celebrate another semester done. Wanna see all of it gone—can tell you haven’t been eating enough.”

“Thanks,” Sam says, taking a bite. It’s delicious, just like everything else Benny makes.

When Sam is about finished, Benny drops off the check. “You teachin’ summer term?” he asks, and Sam nods. “Don’t be a stranger, then, okay? Come in, least often enough that I know you’re eating.”

Sam promises, and Benny walks away, seemingly satisfied. Sam drops some cash for the bill and a generous tip.

He’s at the point of exhaustion where he considers it a good idea, where his brain doesn’t know to stop him. So he pulls a pen from his bag and scribbles his number on the side of the receipt. Just in case that’s something Benny would want.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam comes in for lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He sometimes comes in more if he has time, but those days are pretty set in stone. 

Benny loves having Sam there. For one thing, he can make sure he’s eating right–or at all, as it may be. For another, with how busy they both are, they don’t get to see each other much, despite this budding relationship of theirs. Three days a week, even if it’s only an hour, and even if Benny is technically working at the time, goes a long way.

Benny is less fond of the gaggle of college students who have found out that their favorite professor eats at his diner on a regular basis. The business would be nice, but most of them just order coffee and take up space to ogle Sam.

He’s not shocked that Sam is their favorite, or someone they might want to follow around. After all, he’s incredibly smart, and so nice. He cares about everything so much, including every last student. And, yeah, he’s real nice to look at.

Today he looks tired again, although nowhere near as tired as the day he gave Benny his number. But he still has a smile on, and he’s wearing that adorable tweed jacket over his sweater. Benny wants to pull him into the kitchen and kiss him senseless. It’s not exactly a surprise that he’s not the only one who feels that way.

He pours Sam a big mug of coffee–he wants to tell Sam to skip the caffeine and get some sleep, maybe in Benny’s apartment upstairs if he’s up for it, but Sam has an evening class and office hours still, so he gets coffee instead–and chats with him for a few minutes. It’s an indescribable feeling, to have to complete focus of Sam, to have those eyes and that smile directed entirely at him.

He goes to the kitchen to put in an order for Sam–surprising him, as is their tradition–and goes to get orders from his other customers, including the gaggle of kids staring at Sam.

“ _You_ go talk to him.”

“No, you.”

Benny rolls his eyes and gets them all coffee. One of them even orders a sandwich.

By the time he brings the sandwich, they seem to have elected a representative to go talk to Sam. Benny frowns. It’s not that he doesn’t think Sam will be willing to talk to his students. He doubts Sam can ever turn them down. But Sam works so hard, and he deserves an hour to him self, to not work.

He crosses the diner to Sam, slides in the booth next to him, and tugs him into a kiss by the lapel of that tweed jacket.

He eventually pulls away, and Sam smiles at him. “You know that won’t make them go away,” he says quietly. “Now they have something more to watch.”

The proximity of Sam’s mouth makes the students far less of a bother to Benny. “Then we should give them a show,” Benny says, leaning in for another kiss.

Sam groans. “This is all I’m going to hear about for a week. You watch, by the time office hours start, they’ll be talking about it all over campus.”

“Give ‘em something good to talk about, then,” Benny says.

“Yeah.” Sam kisses him then, hard, the two of them resembling the hormone-filled college students who hang around far more than a tenured professor and business owner.

They break away, and Benny goes to stand up. “Gotta get you fed,” he says. 

Sam grins. “Eat with me?”

Benny looks around. “Can’t,” he says. “But tell you what–tomorrow night, just you and me. No customers, no students. I’ll cook.”

“Deal,” Sam says.

Benny can feel the students watching him the rest of the lunch hour as he moves around the diner, but with Sam in the booth by the kitchen, smiling at him and complimenting his food, and the promise of dinner tomorrow, it doesn’t bother him in the slightest.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam wakes up to an empty bed. Which in and of itself isn’t unusual–Sam was still ing rad school the last time he had someone to regularly share a bed with–but he distinctly remembers falling asleep in Benny’s bed–in Benny’s arms–last night, and these definitely aren’t his own sheets.

Sam turns to look at the clock, stretching his tired and pleasantly sore body as he does so, and realizes that it’s almost nine. Benny must already be downstairs, working.

Breakfast sounds good, now that Sam thinks about it. Benny makes great waffles. And coffee. Coffee sounds damn good too.

He pulls on his clothes and tries to comb his hair into place. The result is a wrinkled, bed-head, recently fucked mess, but he doesn’t exactly think Benny is going to deny him coffee no matter how he’s dressed, so he digs up his shoes and slips them on, then heads downstairs.

He emerges into the diner, only to blink and realize it’s full. Mostly full of students. He recognizes at least half of them.

And they’re all staring at him, staring at his bedhead and his wrinkled shirt from yesterday and where he’s coming from. And then the whistling and the clapping starts, the good-natured shouting that makes Sam blush to the roots of his hair.

Benny comes over and pulls Sam to am empty seat at the counter. He grins. “Quite an entrance, there, Sam,” he says.

Sam’s still blushing. “I have to teach half these kids this afternoon, and they all know I had sex with you last night.’

Benny clears his throat. "Yeah, uh…think everyone’s gonna know. I mighta, uh…you got a bruise, there,” he says, gesturing to Sam’s throat, above his collar.

Sam groans. “Maybe I can wear a scarf,” he grumbles.

“Think our audience is gonna get bigger?” Benny asks.

Sam shrugs. “We’re campus’ favorite couple, right now. Chance to see that show again? I’d say so. You’re smiling,” he notes suspiciously.

Benny shrugs. “Good for business. An’, well…I’m a happy man, right now, Sam. Gonna take a lot to get this smile off my face.”

Sam grumbles but can’t help smile in turn. Benny’s right. Last night was something to smile about. having Benny right here, standing close, talking to him, is something to smile about.

Benny studies his face. “Hey. Worth it, right?”

Sam pretends to think about it. “Will be if you get me a coffee sometime soon.”

Benny leans over and steals a kiss before going for the pot, which sets off another round of hollers and excited whispers.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam wraps his lecture, checking the clock. Good timing. He usually is good about getting his students out on time, although sometimes he’s just so into whatever he’s talking about that he runs over a bit.

He smiles. “We’ll pick up Thursday,” he says, and then comes the flurry of activity as students begin putting things back int bags. He turns to do the same, his laptop and lecture notes going into his messenger bag. 

Suddenly there’s a hand on his hip, and Sam has half a second to seethe at the student who would be so forward before he realizes how big and warm the hand is.

“Benny,” he says, turning around. “What’re you doing here?”

Benny holds up a brown paper bag and a styrofoam coffee cup. “Delivery,” he says.

Sam smiles a bit. “You don’t deliver.”

“We do for our best customers,” he says. “Got tuna salad sandwich, pickle, fresh fruit salad, and, as always, your coffee.”

Sam smiles fully now. “You’re the greatest,” he says. Then he realizes it’s twelve thirty on a Tuesday. “Don’t you have a diner to run?”

Benny sets the bag on the desk and waves that away. “What’s the point of havin’ staff if they can’t keep it runnin’ for an hour without me?” he complains. “They’re all good kids. They know what they’re doin’. And they’ll call if they get into trouble.”

The _good kids_  are mostly college kids, a lot of them Sam’s students, and they are good, if a little too interested in their boss’ love life. Still, they’re bright. They can keep things together for an hour or so.

Benny begins setting up two place settings on the desk, and Sam looks around to realize the classroom is still half full, and the students are all watching them. He smiles. “See you Thursday,” he repeats, hoping they get the hint.

They begin to trickle out, even the most stubborn of them. Benny grins. “Shall we?” he asks.

It takes them a minute to find a second chair that can be used with the table turned desk, but once they do, they sit down to eat, both of them digging into their sandwiches–ham for Benny, tuna salad for Sam–with gusto. Benny even goes so far to feed Sam fruit off of his own fork.

Benny watches as Sam drinks his coffee and frowns. I’m an enabler,” he grumbles.

Sam grins, setting the cup down. “This is my last for the day,” he promises. “Just office hours and my lecture tonight to get through.”

“Comin’ over tonight?” Benny asks.

“Mhm,” Sam says, nodding. He’s been there most every night for the last week. It’s closer to campus, he reasons–although that, in all honesty, usually should be a reason to avoid it. It has Benny there. Sam likes an apartment and a bed with Benny in it.

Sam hears a scuffle by the door and looks up, only to see flashes of shirts and hair darting out of sight. He sighs. “We’re being watched,” he warns.

Benny grins. “Ya think our fifteen minutes would be up,” he says. “Still campus’ most entertaining news?”

“Apparently,” Sam grouses.

Benny just pushes a pickle towards Sam. “Eat your food,” he says.

Sam does. So what if students keep peeking in on them? They’re not going to interrupt his lunch with Benny.


End file.
